It was held from 3 to 12 November 1998 in Tokyo, Tokuyama, Matsumoto, Kagoshima, Nagoya, Fukuoka, and Osaka, Japan.

For the tournament's final standings, teams that did not reach placement matches were allocated as:[3] The drawing of lots took place on 20 April 1998 in Tokyo, Japan.

[4] Teams were seeded in the first two positions of each pool following the Serpentine system according to their FIVB World Ranking.

FIVB reserved the right to seed the hosts as head of Pool A regardless of the World Ranking.

[5] The number after the team's name reflect its FIVB World Ranking in October 1998.